An overspill of the investigations of the London bombings, that has insofar claimed 56 lives, has lead to the arrest of Haroon Rashid Aswat a Briton in Pakistan, on the suspicion of playing a key role. Pakistani intelligence apprehended him from Sargodha, a small town 110 miles west of Lahore, carrying a belt packed with explosives, a British passport and substantial cash, after British authorities found his number on the mobile phones used by the four bombers.
Aswat a Batley-resident, reportedly grew up in Dewsbury, where the suspected ringleader of the recent attack Mohammad Sidique Khan had lived, which is a short distance from Leeds, where the other bombers of Pakistani origin resided. British officials believe that 30-year-old Aswat is also wanted by the FBI for several years, after he is supposed to have travelled to Oregon in November 1999 to establish an al-Qaida training camp.
However, FBI scaled down their hunt after a Taliban terrorist killed by US soldiers in Pakistan was found with his passport in Afghanistan. It is also unclear whether Aswat was the name by which the "fifth suspect bomber" operated, also understood to be an al-Qaida operative who slipped into the UK several weeks before the attacks and escaped surveillance by flying out. Until British intelligence question Aswat, there is no firm evidence to link him to the blasts on the three tube trains and a bus two weeks ago.
Earlier a Briton and Hounslow-resident Zeeshan Siddiqui 24, was detained in Peshawar for questioning after he is believed to have met Shehzad Tanweer, one of the London bombers visiting a religious school in Lahore and in touch with the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He is also said to be a close school friend of Asif Hanif, who is one of four suicide bombers killed in the Tel Aviv attack in April 2003. The police are believed to have in their custody Zeeshan’s diary where he has recorded on 6th March that one of his contacts was "chickening out" only to add a week later noted that the "wagon is now called off".
It is believed that Aswat, had links with Jaish-i-Muhammad, one of the four major Islamist groups active in Pakistan who have also been supportive to the al-Qaida in the past. Meanwhile, relatives of Aswat in Batley say that he had barely been seen over the last 10 years and left no indication of his whereabouts. Haroon Rashid Aswat is said to be the third of 10 children born to Rashid and Sara, both Indian Muslims, who have lived in Yorkshire for several decades. One sibling said of his brother Aswat: "When he used to come, we just talked to him as a family member. From what I can conclude, maybe he didn't want us to know what he was doing or where he was living".
Meanwhile, in an effort to counter Tony Blair’s comment on the militant teachings in Pakistani religious schools, Pakistani police rounded up to 200 men in raids on mosques and madrasas within 24 hours, questioning some for possible links with the three suicide bombers from Leeds, who travelled to Pakistan last year. British intelligence officials have given close to 100 telephone numbers to their Pakistani counterparts for possible links to the bombers of which atleast 80 numbers were found to be “cold” leads, besides the names of several people in Pakistan who were called by the bombers over the year.
While many of the investigations lead to or point to Pakistan, Britain is tightening internal security, questioning any display of terrorist / fundamentalistic leanings. A 30-year-old man Mohammed Rahman was rounded up in Edmonton, near London after he delivered leaflets, outside a mosque, intending to incite racial hatred. While there is some confusion surrounding Aswat’s arrest by Pakistani officials, as a man named Abu Ubaid was arrested in the same timeframe, carrying the same items, it maybe a result of Aswat’s many aliases. If the arrested man is found to be the same person that the British Intelligence and FBI make him out to be, the arrest would amount to a major breakthrough in the inquiry.
